Both Tavish’s hands went to her rib cage now, pressing in and up, causing her décolletage to swell above the thin linen. He caught the frayed edge of underdress puckered between her breasts in his teeth and then smoothed both palms forward to press her hardened nipples into her flesh before raking his fingertips together in a plucking motion, taking great fistfuls of the material.
He rent it with his teeth, pulling it apart with his hands as he sank lower, between her breasts, over her abdomen, the ripping linen preceding his hot breath. He dropped to his knees and licked the skin around her navel in a quick circuit while his hands finished ruining the underdress and then jerked it downward from her shoulders.
Glenna heard the startled gasp coming from her as if from another person. She swayed on her feet as Tavish Cameron’s hands slid up the backs of her calves, then her thighs, then gripped her bare cheeks. He looked up at her then, his eyes ablaze in the shadows set dancing by the fire and without breaking gaze with her he nuzzled his mouth into her most sensitive flesh.
Glenna cried out, and her stiff posture at last broke, but rather than retreat from her in a show of mercy, Tavish Cameron merely turned her toward the bed, urging her into a seat with his hands and his mouth. She braced her hands behind her and Tavish took hold of her right ankle, forcing her foot upward and her bent knee out. He delved fully into her then, and Glenna went back on her elbows, unable to control her passion as she watched him taste her over and over, and she felt her pleasure coming to its peak.
He pushed her other foot onto the bed and her legs fell open, her back bowed. Her eyes finally closed as she cried out at the powerful vortex that seized her, deafened her, blinded her, and she wanted to bring her knees together but Tavish held them back, pressing her until she writhed to escape him. He crawled up her body then, latching on to her nipple and pressing his swollen breeches between her legs, and Glenna felt her body continue to pulse against his hardened length while he suckled her and she raked her fingers through his hair.
He released her nipple and crawled farther up her naked body, kissing her neck and her lips, and Glenna tasted her own essence.
“I didn’t intend for this tonight,” he rasped in her ear and rocked against her. “But each time I see you, I desire you more. I want you more. I canna stop myself.”
Glenna held his head and kissed him deeply, letting herself go in his embrace, wrapping her legs around his hips. She could not pretend in this moment that she did not desire him, desire the feelings he provoked in her body. Tavish groaned against her mouth and pressed himself against her pubic bone before pulling away slightly and reaching down with one hand to loosen his ties.
A bit of her recklessness left her then; Tavish Cameron would ruin her in an instant, just as he ruined one of the last articles of clothing that she could call her own. She felt his hot length against her for only a moment, and then he rolled away onto his back and dragged her half onto his chest for another hard kiss before pulling away and urging her down with his hands on her shoulders.
Glenna understood what he wanted then. She backed into the space between his leather-clad legs and lay over his thigh, taking his heavy manhood into her hand, and then the tip into her mouth. It was marvelously smooth, and as her lips closed over him, Tavish cried out. She realized that she now held the same power over him that he had held over her moments ago, and she suckled him gently, instinctively, as he raised his hips. The sounds her mouth made were so arousing that she felt herself heating again, and her rising passion gave an enthusiasm for pleasuring of Tavish Cameron that in only moments had brought him to his own peak. He pulled her roughly up and against his body just as she tasted his fulfillment, and she could feel his ejaculation pulsing hot against her stomach.
They kissed, long and leisurely, as the firelight played over their bodies, and neither spoke. After a bit, Glenna shivered in the cold, and Tavish reached across her to drag the coverlets over their bodies before pulling her close once more and placing a kiss on her forehead.
Glenna laid her head on Tavish Cameron’s chest, and her eyes closed in sleep, the tens of lavish gowns still littering the floor like ribbons from a celebration.
Chapter 13
Tavish woke with the dawn and could feel the smile upon his face before he opened his eyes. His body felt alive, refreshed, invigorated—and craving the touch of Glenna Douglas’s soft hands around him. Her perfect pink lips and silky tongue…
He rolled over with a groan of anticipation but felt only a hard twist of abandoned coverlet in his hands. He opened his eyes, and the gray light of the room revealed that he was alone in the bed. Tavish pushed up on an elbow to look around the chamber, sending a slithering, hissing wash of heretofore neatly laid-out gowns to the floor.
She had obviously chosen something fine to wear before she left him.
Tavish fell back onto the mattress, his arms spread wide, and stared at the shadows on the ceiling as they slowly retreated into the corners. He felt a tinge of anger at himself for his eagerness to see her, his disappointment at her absence.
I should have taken her fully last night when I had her beneath me. Then perhaps my mind would be free of the torment of her, and I would be free to make the right decisions for Roscraig.
But even as he thought those things, he wondered at their truth. Glenna Douglas had managed to pierce his thick skin, wriggle her way between his muscle and bone and become a constant disturbance to both Tavish’s normally cool mind and his well-laid plans. The taste of her he’d had last night, the display of her innocence as she’d fully surrendered to him as a woman even without admitting defeat—it had only made his desire for her grow. She was a mystery to him, not only her presence at Roscraig, but her very heart and mind, and he longed to own her as completely as he boasted.
And so it vexed him why he had not simply taken his full desire of her last night—and every night—until the king’s arrival.
Because I am not Thomas Annesley.
Tavish growled and threw back the coverlet, sliding out of the bed and doing his best to ignore his insistent cock, which had obviously not received the message that Glenna Douglas was present only in memory. He retrieved his discarded breeches but donned a plain shirt in place of the fine tunic he had worn to the feast. His old brown leather vest looked too inviting to pass up, and he relished the familiar feel of it as he laced it over the white linen.
Tavish was belting on his sword as he descended the shadowed stairs when he saw Muir walk into the hall below him. Tavish paused while he attended properly to the task of securing his weapon.
Good, he thought.It is well that Muir and I are reconciled this morn. I have regret for the words passed between us last night, and I would put it behind us before he departs Roscraig.
But just as Tavish looped the tail of the leather strap of his hilt to his leg, Muir emerged from the hall again and turned toward the Tower’s entry, this time with a woman on his arm.
A woman in a rose-colored gown, newly fashioned by one of the finest tailors in Edinburgh, her blond curls twisted atop her head.
Glenna.
Tavish watched from the shadows as the pair turned left into the wide entry passage, toward the courtyard, Muir looking straight ahead but with his ear leaned toward that perfect pink mouth; his large captain’s palm covering the small, soft hand that was hooked in his elbow. When they disappeared around the stone corner, Tavish completed the flight of stairs and turned into the hall, passing by the busy servants and heading for the window on the right side of the hearth. He looked out over the newly thatched and shaked roofs of the buildings in the courtyard until he caught sight of the fresh splash of color that was Glenna’s skirts. The pair was walking along leisurely in the soft morning light, looking quite natural and at home as the flow of animals and keepers swirled past them. Muir’s rolling gait seemed to allow Glenna to float along at his side.
Tavish watched them until they came to the isolated point of the courtyard that jutted over the rocks and the waves below. It was clear they had sought the location for a private conversation—but why? What could Captain John Muir and Glenna Douglas possibly have to discuss? They were little more than tiny shapes now, and had Glenna not been wearing the bright new gown, Tavish might have never noticed them.
It seems no one at all notices my absence; your servants, your rich guests, my own father—certainly not you.
